tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16020778058946071952024-02-06T18:48:56.598-08:00This Shrinking PlanetIn this blog we shall cover topics of human overpopulation and the problems of having too many people on one planet.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01944781712274179977noreply@blogger.comBlogger33125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1602077805894607195.post-13711276276035630852016-08-03T19:46:00.001-07:002016-08-04T07:27:51.397-07:00Conversation with Somebody Who Does Not Think Human Overpopulation is an IssueThis is a fictional conversation with a person who does not think human overpopulation is an actual thing. In reality I think the non-believers really don't want to hear anything we have to say. They are either in denial out of fear that this is an actual concern, or they want to have lots of children and do not want to consider that doing so might be one of the worst things for the planet.<br />
<br />
Them "<i>Prove to me that humans are overpopulated.</i>".<br />
<br />
Me "<i>Look around you, what do you see?</i>"<br />
<br />
Them "<i>I see the city, the buildings</i>."<br />
<br />
Me "<i>Right, so what was there before?</i>"<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjygA_ClzRdbFv8kfzDUkuTClED0rwvZ096bAyUX10CgbXsil6rnmA5be99yjaHZUXtGRNJ6u2S-zQBsVktBUSF5Tzkc0RHc6uewcXAayK40EYd9CsgCfnFRQj-tWi2S302PimQj3UTIgjE/s1600/aug+2+2008_0024.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="224" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjygA_ClzRdbFv8kfzDUkuTClED0rwvZ096bAyUX10CgbXsil6rnmA5be99yjaHZUXtGRNJ6u2S-zQBsVktBUSF5Tzkc0RHc6uewcXAayK40EYd9CsgCfnFRQj-tWi2S302PimQj3UTIgjE/s320/aug+2+2008_0024.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
Them "<i><a href="http://thisshrinkingplanet.blogspot.ca/2015/12/where-farm-used-to-be-lesson-on-urban.html" target="_blank">It was farm</a>.</i>"<br />
<br />
Me "<i>Right, and what was there before it was a farm?</i>"<br />
<br />
Them "<i>It was a forest I guess...</i>"<br />
<br />
Me "<i>Right, and that proves we are overpopulated. At one time all this land was a forest, nature lived here. We had species here that are now extinct, such as the passenger pigeon. There was a swamp with animals, there was a forest, and from year to year things pretty much stayed the same. Then we overpopulated where we (humans) were living and we needed food, so we cleared the area and made it into a farm to grow food for ourselves. Where did nature go? Then our population grew more and we needed to fill in the swamp and take over the farm to turn it into a city.</i>"<br />
<br />
Them "<i>But we still have lots of open spaces where we could fit more people</i>."<br />
<br />
Me "<i>Don't you get it? Every time we fit more people, we displace nature, we displace trees, we displace birds, we displace deer, cougars, and everything else that lived here before.</i>" <br />
<br />
Them "<i>We can fit all the people on the earth into the state of Alaska and each person would have 2000 square feet of space!</i>"<br />
<br />
Me "<i>So go live in Alaska and hope your 2000 square feet of space is not on a mountain, and good luck growing enough food for yourself in that space, as well as housing yourself, and disposing of your waste</i>."<br />
<br />
Them "<i>Well we would have to grow food elsewhere and dispose of waste elsewhere.</i>"<br />
<br />
Me "<i>So what was the point of saying we could all live in Alaska if you have to grow food elsewhere and dispose of waste elsewhere?</i> <i>If we have to do that then we are not just living in Alaska and you still forget that a lot of the space you mention is not inhabitable at all.</i>" Pause "<i>You are forgetting that the human population does more than just take up space... we deforest areas for things we think we need, such as coffee, gold, and diamonds. We deforest space so we have lumber for houses and to make way for more and more farm land, and our pollution has rendered some areas uninhabitable for humans or other animals. We have reached a point where we rely on non-renewable resources and are consuming renewable ones at a rate faster than they can be renewed</i>." <br />
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Them (getting defensive) "<i>Well, if we are overpopulated you should just fix it by killing yourself.</i>"<br />
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Me "<i>Saying we are overpopulated does not mean we need to resort to killing ourselves or killing others, we just need to be more responsible and not have kids when we are young, and not have more than one child per couple, and even that is growth as our children do not replace us when we are still alive.</i>"<br />
<br />
Conversation ends.. I have been blocked.. hung up on.. or walked away from.<br />
<br />
Typically people who think that human overpopulation is not an issue do not want to take into account that other species have a right to live here (on the planet) too. They tend to think that "food" is the only issue in regards to concerns about human overpopulation. They often have very little worldly experience, and refuse to consider what might happen in the future due to population concerns. Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01944781712274179977noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1602077805894607195.post-26329996636373175822016-06-27T20:00:00.002-07:002016-06-27T20:00:30.439-07:00My Rant About People in Denial in Regards to Human OverpopulatonTo me it makes no sense to deny that there is a human overpopulation problem. Most of the people who say overpopulation is a myth are those who already have a few kids. They throw up stupid arguments like "<i>Everyone on the planet could fit in the state of Alaska and we would all have 2,000 square feet of room each</i>", but fail to explain how each person would produce enough food (clothing, etc) for themselves in that 2,000 foot space, where their waste would go, and if they would be willing to share that space with their kids, grandkids, and so forth.<br />
<br />
The over population deniers spout crap like "<i>The earth provides enough for everyone's need, but it is just not being distributed fairly</i>". Which is only partially true and it negates the fact that most people are over consuming... if everyone lived like the average American, we would need 4 or 5 earth's to sustain us all! Perhaps the earth would provide enough for everyone's need, if everyone in the developed nations did not consume as much as they do now (not just food, but other resources too). However, when I see somebody saying that the world is not overpopulated they represent the <a href="http://worldcentric.org/conscious-living/expanding-eco-footprint" target="_blank">typical first world person</a>; living in a roomy house, driving a newer car, owning electronics and things that are otherwise not true "needs". They have no idea what a mess the world would be if everyone had an equal amount of stuff as they had.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgK6xplI5iLhq9WxY2IWF0qIL6Nm1YAoyKofPeOvFNQ8qYZEnB-5TEJDobmkmgc8m3DXHiSxDpvB7drBR4-aLHYWXctMUIMjA1amdk9yjicj3F3j4ETMoW8bxqc7bEwwWEyycA2_cE5zuSV/s1600/P9250438.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="247" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgK6xplI5iLhq9WxY2IWF0qIL6Nm1YAoyKofPeOvFNQ8qYZEnB-5TEJDobmkmgc8m3DXHiSxDpvB7drBR4-aLHYWXctMUIMjA1amdk9yjicj3F3j4ETMoW8bxqc7bEwwWEyycA2_cE5zuSV/s400/P9250438.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Aerial photos show that this area was once a thick forest, now the only trees that remain are a thin band separating one farm from another, primarily to serve as a windbreak and nothing more than that. The loss of trees in North America was one of the contributing factors in the extinction of the Passenger Pigeon, a bird that once numbered in the billions.</td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
Deniers don't see the obvious things as signs of overpopulation. I refer to farmer's fields and other avenues of agriculture. Do they think that farms have always been where farms are now? Does it not occur to them that in some cases that land used to be a rich forest? As soon as the very first forest was cleared and that land turned into a farm, we impacted the earth negatively. <br />
<br />
As soon as we drove another species to extinction, either because of habitat loss, or because we over-consumed it, we were a problem. As soon as our waste started to pile up we should have clued in that we were a problem. Why can people not get that?<br />
<br />
Are they so wrapped up in their own reality that they fail to see the global picture, or are they just in denial because they have to be in order to justify pumping out kid after kid?<br />
<br />
I rarely bother to argue with <a href="http://thisshrinkingplanet.blogspot.ca/2012/09/the-ignorance-of-humans-makes-more.html" target="_blank">ignorant deniers</a> any more. I have conceded that in most cases they will not be swayed, especially if they already had kids and have to maintain the fact that they are not contributing to a potential major concern. Instead I will focus on educating the youth, with subtle comments here and there, in hopes that they have open minds and will absorb some of what they are told and will go forth to expand on what I tell them.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01944781712274179977noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1602077805894607195.post-18225325733130631282015-12-13T10:25:00.000-08:002015-12-13T10:29:22.485-08:00Where a Farm Used to Be, A Lesson on Urban Sprawl and OverpopulationHowdy boys and girls.<br />
<br />
I know a lot of you are in denial about human overpopulation, you don't think it is a real "thing".<br />
<br />
I suppose some of you might even be shocked to learn that human overpopulation has been talked about for many years, even over 100 years ago when Reverend Thomas Malthus suggested that war and famine was God's way of punishing us for overpopulating the earth.<br />
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I am over 50 years old, and in my time the earth's human population has more than doubled, many forests have been destroyed, rivers polluted, the Aral sea has almost vanished, and hundreds of species have gone extinct. YES human over population is a real thing!<br />
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<iframe width="320" height="266" class="YOUTUBE-iframe-video" data-thumbnail-src="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/oR2TPNXAjdo/0.jpg" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/oR2TPNXAjdo?feature=player_embedded" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe></div>
<br />
Please watch the video above but mostly listen to the words!<br />
<br />
In my lifetime I have observed the urban sprawl of many cities, mostly the one where I grew up, Edmonton, Alberta.<br />
<br />
I remember as a child driving out to a place in the country to take our cat for boarding when we went away. That place is now a parking lot for a shopping area, and it is at least another 10 minutes drive to get out of the city. When I was a kid all that are was farm land. Before it was farm land I suppose it was natural area, perhaps forest, or other wilderness area.<br />
<br />
Years ago North America was home to a bird that numbered in the billions. This being the Passenger Pigeon. Those birds have gone extinct in part due to hunting but mostly due to loss of habitat as they needed certain large forests in which to congregate and nest. Those forests were destroyed to make way for farm land.<br />
<br />
I do not understand how anyone more than 30 years of age can deny the changes they should have been seeing in their own lifetimes, unless they just do not get out of the city much and have not seen how things actually have changed, or have not read the news about how fast some animal species are going extinct due to habitat loss.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOhviX52IYqKZzn74w8BhbR5KalWrJUhy8rRxnNDSUpNxrnrtnwNOT7UwQdtN4P-PySkvGk2FF0Q4Ph3t_zX72p4VmnJ1DDSVA4NBTEPsJ_pPisaHT9VmnJFu4-XeTPsmoaVLFBFOOJqHL/s1600/cowstruck_0008.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="276" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOhviX52IYqKZzn74w8BhbR5KalWrJUhy8rRxnNDSUpNxrnrtnwNOT7UwQdtN4P-PySkvGk2FF0Q4Ph3t_zX72p4VmnJ1DDSVA4NBTEPsJ_pPisaHT9VmnJFu4-XeTPsmoaVLFBFOOJqHL/s400/cowstruck_0008.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Ask yourself what used to be where a farm used to be? Hint in the background!</i></td></tr>
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Where a farm used to be there is now a parking lot, mega shopping structures, housing, and hundreds more people. Nonetheless what is very important to remember is that something used to be in the spot where the farm used to be too. As soon as we needed to clear trees to have a farm, at that very point, we entered an area of being an invasive species, we became overpopulated, not necessarily to the point it hurt our own species, but to the point that it hurt others!<br />
<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01944781712274179977noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1602077805894607195.post-88232768520491505602015-09-28T09:48:00.001-07:002015-09-28T09:48:23.199-07:00What if Each Family Only Had One Acre?<i>Why are people considering living on Mars?</i><br /><br />The answer is simple; it is because we are overpopulating and destroying our own planet and need more room! <br />
<br />
Imagine if each couple were delegated 1 acre of land to live on, and could only use resources from that plot of land (catching rain water as needed). All their food had to come from that acre, all their waste had to be disposed of on that acre.<br />
<br />
They build a house using all the trees and rocks. They plant a garden and have some <a href="http://guides.wikinut.com/Why-Everyone-should-Keep-Pet-Chickens/10kq30ec/" target="_blank">chickens</a>. They have a goat for milk. If they are lucky they have a pond for fish. They are perfectly sustainable on their land. Then one day they have a baby. That baby needs things. They re-purpose older clothes for baby clothes, but food eventually becomes an issue. At first they can produce enough to feed the child, but eventually the child needs more food and it gets tough with the parents eating a bit less just so the child can have more. Then they have another child.<br />
<br />
At one point their small house starts to feel crowded, but they have no more trees to use to expand their home, and do not wish to take away any more land from what they need to produce food. <br />
<br />
On land that previously supported two people, they are now trying to support four. <i>What do they do?</i><br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiu1xF1BFM9pWQxGGtO3FuMglUPYjMk4iV14rzWkvX1MZuJYs6zqRTXcDJMfvvzm-T1qO5yRc7gTnM0_-HOPRhjtBBId_0CGJBtMIYadqCEmh0vK64wq7vbECsc5RSaqsnP-1kGUdi_4pTQ/s1600/cajun+veggie+with+toppings.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="293" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiu1xF1BFM9pWQxGGtO3FuMglUPYjMk4iV14rzWkvX1MZuJYs6zqRTXcDJMfvvzm-T1qO5yRc7gTnM0_-HOPRhjtBBId_0CGJBtMIYadqCEmh0vK64wq7vbECsc5RSaqsnP-1kGUdi_4pTQ/s320/cajun+veggie+with+toppings.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Vege patties, spinach, cucumber, tomatoes. A meal for two.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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They find ways to cheat on food production. They pump the goat with hormones so it produces more milk. They water the garden more so it produces larger vegetables and fruits, but even though the fruit is larger it contains only the same nutrition as would be in a smaller vegetable. Combined with the fact that the land has been used so much that it contains less nutrients than in earlier years, and we see how the family has barely enough food but the food itself has less value. <br />
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This is where the human population is now. Although we feel like we have unlimited space and we technically produce enough food for everyone, the food we are producing today has less nutritional value than it did even 20 years ago. Dairy animals in some nations are pumped with hormones to produce more milk but the side effect of the hormones on the humans that drink the milk <a href="http://scienceblogs.com/aetiology/2012/06/19/growth-hormones-in-milk-mythfact/" target="_blank">are dangerous</a>, and the <a href="http://dailytwocents.com/you-didnt-really-think-dairy-was-cruelty-free-did-you/" target="_blank">dairy animals</a> themselves have shorter lives as a result of being stressed in that way.<br />
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Our farmers are producing big strawberries, but have you tasted one or compared it to the small strawberries that grow wild? The huge berries have little taste in comparison. <br />
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Think of the earth as the one acre homestead. We cannot expand it. If we keep adding people to it, and resources are limited, we have to find ways to cope. We can cope by cheating with the resources, but to what end? <br />
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Additional problems come about in that some people are not happy with their meager one acre and insist on having more, thus forcing others to get by on less space, or poorer land. <br />
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<i><b>If you had to live on one acre, and could only produce enough food for two people, would you have kids? How many?</b></i><br />
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I should note too that <a href="http://thisshrinkingplanet.blogspot.ca/2013/11/food-is-not-issue-with-overpopulation.html" target="_blank">food is not the only issue</a> we need to consider in regards to human overpopulation.<br />
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Sending people to live on Mars is not the answer. <a href="http://thisshrinkingplanet.blogspot.ca/2015/08/people-overreact-when-i-mention-human.html" target="_blank">Killing people</a> off is not the answer either!<br />
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<b>The answer is for people to be more responsible.</b> Having children at a later age (no younger than 25) and limiting oneself to only having one child is a good solution to prevent further population growth. It is also vital that people adapt sustainable skills, and stop demanding unnecessary things (useless home decor items, and other luxury items). <br />
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<br />
<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01944781712274179977noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1602077805894607195.post-75251279027299543302015-09-15T09:16:00.000-07:002015-09-15T09:16:11.453-07:00How Do We Know if the World is Overpopulated
Agreeing on if the world is overpopulated or not is based on more
than if we produce enough food for all the people on the planet.
Indeed deciding if there are are too many humans is not just about
the humans, but is about all other species as well as the earth
itself.<br />
<br />
For thousands of years the human population stayed pretty steady
around 1 to 2 billion people, shooting up only recently with
improvements to health care and industrialization. When the human
population was lower we were still causing some impact on the planet
but in no way as great as we are doing now that our human population
numbers over 7 billion.<br />
<br />
If you talk to somebody who is in their 50's or older they will
probably tell you how they can remember farms in areas that are now
built up and urbanized. Indeed the human population has more than
doubled in the last 50 years and we have lost a lot of farm land as
well as natural forests due to the growth rate. Farms have become
more “<i>efficient</i>” at producing more food on less land, and
typically this results in food that has less nutrition, but again
food is not the focus...<br />
<br />
The oceans all have <a href="http://guides.wikinut.com/The-Great-Pacific-Garbage-Patch/zhl081_o/" target="_blank">gyres of human garbage</a>, large pits and
quarries destroy the landscapes in many areas. Deforestation has
lead to landslides on many mountains. Toxic ponds of industrial
waste pollute many areas. Giant mounds of human garbage occupy many
acres of land worldwide. Thousands of species of animals have gone
extinct in the past 200 years and yet some people still claim that
the human population is not too high.<br />
<br />
Studies done on rats and mice years ago by <i>John B. Calhoun</i>
suggested that many social problems are the result of overpopulation.
In his experiments the animals were cared for medically and were
well fed but their population was allowed to grow. At a certain
point the formerly social animals became anti-social, random acts of
violence became common, and parenting skills declined drastically to
the point that eventually the young animals did not survive.<br />
<br />
Humans have long been known to be violent towards one and other
but the <a href="http://thisshrinkingplanet.blogspot.com/2015/08/causes-of-random-acts-of-violence.html" target="_blank">acts of violence</a> were rarely random as they are today.
People walk down busy streets without making eye contact, they walk
past those who are suffering (homeless) as though they did not exist.
Compassion to our fellow man is being lost as we become more and
more overpopulated.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_9M9gPTVvE-bAlJtppUp_iZqcsu4ypnWDu3ojZ1azJva2uLn3HVDeynxAs8fANDpfnLwQdP-Un1jFE5cpDbxoI58mExI0P0V9VcuLQSFwuBUZEerkaH8wTm5w3jZqQmr_N3vaupNw1fAJ/s1600/aug+2+2008_0024.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="280" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_9M9gPTVvE-bAlJtppUp_iZqcsu4ypnWDu3ojZ1azJva2uLn3HVDeynxAs8fANDpfnLwQdP-Un1jFE5cpDbxoI58mExI0P0V9VcuLQSFwuBUZEerkaH8wTm5w3jZqQmr_N3vaupNw1fAJ/s400/aug+2+2008_0024.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">This development (in Edmonton) used to be farm land, and prior to being farm land it was a forest. How is this "better" than a forest? How is this being in harmony with the planet?</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<br />
Although some people have suggested a sustainable human population
is 5 billion (and others have suggested <a href="http://thisshrinkingplanet.blogspot.com/2011/11/georgia-guidestones-rule-of-500000.html" target="_blank">500 million</a>) there is
probably no definite number of what the maximum sustainable
population is. In part it relates to how sustainable we chose to
live our lives. Five billion people who live lives of excess are not
nearly as sustainable as 5 billion people who live modestly (<a href="http://thisshrinkingplanet.blogspot.com/2012/03/can-somebody-build-small-homes-please.html" target="_blank">small homes</a>, consuming only what they need, few luxuries).<br />
<br />
Sadly it is impossible, therefore, to give an exact number at
which the human population is considered to be overpopulated. Most
certainly, due to our impact on the environment, and other species,
we have surpassed that number. As long as we rely on non-renewable
resources, and consume renewable ones up faster than they can be
renewed, and as long as we displace, or destroy, other species, we
are overpopulated.<br />
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01944781712274179977noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1602077805894607195.post-37615125740235588652015-08-29T18:31:00.000-07:002015-08-29T18:31:38.486-07:00People Overreact When I Mention Human OverpopulationI am a bit behind the times; I only recently joined Facebook! I have often mentioned human overpopulation on Facebook posts, such as when a person references pollution, or whatever. Typically I am met with responses that are not only very defensive, but often a total overreaction to my comment. Specifically some people jump to the conclusion that I am suggesting we kill off a bunch of people!<br />
<br />
<b>I have never suggested solving the concerns of human overpopulation by killing people. </b><br />
<br />
To that end I am actually afraid that at one point the world will be so overpopulated that killing people (much as we do with other species to control their growth) will be something that is talked about more openly. I grew up watching shows such as "<i>Logan's Run</i>" and movies like "<i>Soylent Green</i>" in which overpopulation was a real concern and society had its own way of dealing with this. <br />
<br />
I absolutely do not want the human population reaching a point where our lifespan is decided for us. Heck no! That is why I warn about human overpopulation now and point out that we cannot bury our heads in the sand and pretend it is not a concern. That is why I tell people that one child is plenty, and that putting off having kids until you are at least 28 is a very important thing to do.<br />
<br />
Look around, human overpopulation is <a href="http://thisshrinkingplanet.blogspot.ca/2013/11/food-is-not-issue-with-overpopulation.html" target="_blank">not about food</a>, it is about what we are doing to our planet just by being here. <b>We have destroyed forests, we have driven thousands of other species to extinction, we have caused the destruction of many ecosystems, polluted rivers and lakes</b>, and yet some people still insist we are living in harmony with the planet and that our numbers are not too large!<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_9M9gPTVvE-bAlJtppUp_iZqcsu4ypnWDu3ojZ1azJva2uLn3HVDeynxAs8fANDpfnLwQdP-Un1jFE5cpDbxoI58mExI0P0V9VcuLQSFwuBUZEerkaH8wTm5w3jZqQmr_N3vaupNw1fAJ/s1600/aug+2+2008_0024.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="280" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_9M9gPTVvE-bAlJtppUp_iZqcsu4ypnWDu3ojZ1azJva2uLn3HVDeynxAs8fANDpfnLwQdP-Un1jFE5cpDbxoI58mExI0P0V9VcuLQSFwuBUZEerkaH8wTm5w3jZqQmr_N3vaupNw1fAJ/s400/aug+2+2008_0024.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The city used to be farm land, the farm land used to be a forest... as soon as we destroyed the forest, we were overpopulating the area. This is the city of Edmonton, Alberta.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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I am not talking about depopulating the planet by killing people. I am suggesting we realize that we are killing the planet by allowing our population to grow uncontrolled (we have eliminated many things that kept our population controlled, such as diseases, and predators). We are living longer than ever before and that is in fact the problem because the birth rate is actually going down in many countries. However the population grows because infant mortality is down, and (as mentioned) we are living longer so several generations of the same family are alive at the same time, whereas in the past the older generations would have died off, allowing for room for the younger generations.<br />
<br /><b>Please do not put words into my mouth, I am not suggesting we kill people</b>, I am just suggesting each one of us would be reproductively responsible and not have more than one child, and not have that child before we are over the age of 28.<br />
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I am sure that most people who talk about human overpopulation are met with the same overreaction by others who assume that just because you talk about there being too many people that you are automatically suggesting we eliminate some!<br />
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01944781712274179977noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1602077805894607195.post-52818630934290764602015-08-23T08:47:00.000-07:002015-08-23T08:47:44.370-07:00Dumb Thing Said by a Pro-LiferI am not pro-life, I am pro-choice. I think if a woman wants to have an abortion she should be allowed to do so, however I do feel that it would be better if women who do not want kids would take measures to avoid pregnancy in the first place. Nonetheless I realize that unwanted pregnancies do occur.<br />
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On an anti-abortion post on Facebook recently one pastor made the ignorant comment "<i>They should just wait until they get married before having sex</i>". This comment is ignorant on so many levels but mostly because it implies that once people are married they want kids and will not have abortions.<br />
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In Ireland abortions are illegal. One married woman was pregnant with a ectopic pregnancy that meant that her baby had no chance for survival, and nor did she. She was denied an abortion and died. This occurred in October 2012. The anti-abortion laws in Ireland were subsequently changed to allow abortions when the mother's life is at risk.<br />
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It is religion that largely fuels the "pro-life" movement but I rarely see those who are against abortion line up to adopt drug addicted babies, or those with other issues. I rarely see them hand out <a href="http://thisshrinkingplanet.blogspot.com/2012/03/schools-should-give-condoms-for-free-to.html" target="_blank">free condoms</a> or offer to pay for birth control. Instead they simply tell people to wait until they are married before having sex.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimIV0Pc6QjBOv3zNx-csiVZEoMyuIFnG9UDWW81MJL6LDXnnOgI5HFB7LMfNUv_UuqoHpdiTDuNT5v_bAwlECQwaIRFqeqgJ9UwrifpDEFC5asD6vBHwRd0yARNEXZPZXqq4WN6mrXD_3H/s1600/alter+ego.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimIV0Pc6QjBOv3zNx-csiVZEoMyuIFnG9UDWW81MJL6LDXnnOgI5HFB7LMfNUv_UuqoHpdiTDuNT5v_bAwlECQwaIRFqeqgJ9UwrifpDEFC5asD6vBHwRd0yARNEXZPZXqq4WN6mrXD_3H/s320/alter+ego.jpg" width="221" /></a></div>
Marriage is no guarantee that people wont have abortions, it is no guarantee that they want kids. So telling people to wait until they get married before having sex is not going to stop abortions. Empowering people to be able to prevent unwanted pregnancies will!<br />
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All these pro-lifers who think they are <b>holier-than-thou</b> need to open their eyes to reality. If a woman does not want a baby and happens to get pregnant and is told she cannot abort, she will likely not care for her unborn child throughout her pregnancy, and may come to hate it, she may drink, smoke, do drugs, and fill her self with anger and rage directed towards the unborn child and we know that a mother's mood during pregnancy does affect the unborn child.<br />
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I wish women could avoid getting pregnant if they know they do not want a child, but I also know the reality for some women does not make this possible. To be ignorant and tell people to wait until marriage and assume that somehow being married makes people fit and ready to be parents is a joke! Married people, can, and do, have abortions too. <br />
<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01944781712274179977noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1602077805894607195.post-70801566401989467632015-08-15T09:52:00.001-07:002015-08-15T09:52:58.266-07:00Causes of Random Acts of ViolenceIf you think random acts of violence are more common now than in the past you are correct. <br />
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Violence has often been a part of the human society, wars over territory and such have been a concern for thousands of years, but actual random acts of violence are a relatively new thing.<br />
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In studies done on rats and mice, John B. Calhoun noted that as the populations grew so too did the occurrence of random acts of violence. He provided the animals with ample food and water, so he could eliminate "need" from the cause of violent outbreaks. What he noted was that as populations grew the compassion the animals had for one and other shrunk. They no longer acted the same towards one and other, even simple parenting skills declined.<br />
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The rats, or mice, were in near constant contact with each other and this caused them to devalue others of their kind more and more over time, leading to the increase in random acts of violence.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJhRVcjB5kvgouNWyQdHq5__hJvKjPhDW2o9zNpHuOnKo8MTPc5sZrdrriOdr1HCSqt57RwlTwvp6e4miRNDnJKMsYXQ8cqg96n9Tmm61edCgerFV3Z8heukflwQiVVkl7Bj1aZHQL24E_/s1600/annasept2007_1_0019.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="222" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJhRVcjB5kvgouNWyQdHq5__hJvKjPhDW2o9zNpHuOnKo8MTPc5sZrdrriOdr1HCSqt57RwlTwvp6e4miRNDnJKMsYXQ8cqg96n9Tmm61edCgerFV3Z8heukflwQiVVkl7Bj1aZHQL24E_/s320/annasept2007_1_0019.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
Humans have doubled their population in the last 40 years. This has caused a huge strain on us socially as more and more people feel like life is a rat race and is less enjoyable overall. More people than ever are living in cities, constantly rubbing shoulders with others. In turn people feel lost and alone, and their subconscious cannot take the loss of identity. People are, in general, less compassionate to strangers, and in some cases even resent them. <br />
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In the past when people lived rurally or in smaller communities (and in areas where these smaller communities still exist) people still greet each other with a "<i>hello</i>" and they still make eye-contact, even with people they do not know. In big cities people mentally distance themselves from others, they do not say "<i>hi</i>" to people they walk by on the street and avoid eye-contact.<br />
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We have already reached a point where random acts of violence are occurring, and are at a place where they seem to be quite common. <br />
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As parents we must raise our children to be compassionate to others, but equally so if we have lots of children we need to take responsibility for the fact that we are just adding more of a burden to the problem.<br />
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More people = more stress.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01944781712274179977noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1602077805894607195.post-42213495092045708272015-08-06T20:02:00.000-07:002015-08-06T20:02:38.028-07:00Can Families Raise Children Without Depending on DaycareOne symptom of overpopulation is parents giving up their role as parents. In studies on rats and mice, as the populations grew the parent animals were less involved with raising their young. It seems to me that the human population is showing the same symptom in that many parents are getting strangers to raise their kids rather than raising their kids themselves.<br />
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The excuse so often given is that they "<i>need to both work</i>" so they need to have daycare.<br />
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I had only one child and before she was born both my husband and I agreed we were not going to place her in daycare. Please note that we were not rich, in fact we were considered lower class citizens, living on minimum wage. Rather than dumping our daughter in daycare we simply altered our schedules so that while he worked full time and I worked part time, I worked on days and times when he was home, and visa versa. <br />
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We were very frugal with our money. We did not have cell phones, internet, or cable television. We had one car that we shared, it cost us very little to buy and we were not making payments on it. We never went out for coffee but we often went for lovely walks to the park. <br />
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We put our child as a priority rather than having "<i>stuff</i>". <br />
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When I hear people say that they cannot afford for one person to stay at home and watch their children I seriously wonder what they are thinking, because if we did it on a really low income, anyone with a better income should be able to do it too. <br />
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Otherwise I have to wonder why even have a child if you are not willing to raise it yourself, particularly as children's most formative years are 0 to 5.<br />
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If a person cannot stay home to raise one child, then why do they have more? Surely this raises their day care expenses and further cuts into their income.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmlpZm6N0BHxDjHt1ROqzqIcHReiH8CbvYbIMfrFZkZePRYrtgEKjGX_S9642J3GLO5z1DjFrUQxFohnuk4ja8ew2I8r8ndLKaugu_B90TXSzjoM33ql5iZG-3jb2x2BNKrGq-6G2UdUNq/s1600/pic.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="214" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmlpZm6N0BHxDjHt1ROqzqIcHReiH8CbvYbIMfrFZkZePRYrtgEKjGX_S9642J3GLO5z1DjFrUQxFohnuk4ja8ew2I8r8ndLKaugu_B90TXSzjoM33ql5iZG-3jb2x2BNKrGq-6G2UdUNq/s320/pic.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Universe 25, a study on mice which showed that as populations grew the parent mice cared less and less for their own offspring with each new generation.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
I realize that most people are not logical thinkers. They want kids, they want a big house, they want new cars, and they are not willing to make any sacrifices. They make excuses for why they put their kid(s) in day care, they say they could not afford to stay home, but in all reality they just did not make the right choices so they could stay home. They wanted too much stuff instead!<br />
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Again, as a low income person, if my husband and I could figure out a way for one of us to always stay home, for sure a couple making a higher income should be able to figure it out too.<br />
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Over all though, parents would be wise to remember that one kid is expensive, more will not be cheaper.<br />
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The world is not at a loss for population, we need to control our numbers, there is no need for people who produce more and more kids that they are unwilling to look after and will put in the trust of strangers. Is this the result of human overpopulation? Or the result of human greed? <br />
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01944781712274179977noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1602077805894607195.post-84237506729266712472015-03-27T19:54:00.001-07:002015-03-27T19:54:35.855-07:00Shocking Photos that Prove Human OverpopulationThese are photographs that I have taken in the area around me. The prove that there is a concern with human overpopulation, but if you do not understand the connection I will explain it below.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjJzmBR09-o9hkk1jPFvrEE3jeryyiPV8onQHX54ECEPZ6FgiGTgL7zm_-f_qgHghpO4WX5kanoF9eCKzw4XixaaIxDY83qc0-fIJGDSDMthaiKwRi_iFEKiXCVSk1K3nOB-ygbfCjL1md/s1600/P9250438.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjJzmBR09-o9hkk1jPFvrEE3jeryyiPV8onQHX54ECEPZ6FgiGTgL7zm_-f_qgHghpO4WX5kanoF9eCKzw4XixaaIxDY83qc0-fIJGDSDMthaiKwRi_iFEKiXCVSk1K3nOB-ygbfCjL1md/s1600/P9250438.JPG" height="198" width="320" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjznvm7E_62dcaakfWUfpY30ScYGItkGtBBLkeODCczW1cseVAAPiVLoqJkn52JLJv58JkryqyHI6H3mATltZ6x2cTNzB23TZvrlxNmIuNufI63xtZcTvOMVIpmHbKhM2lvS_v_33PhdyQq/s1600/PC310667.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjznvm7E_62dcaakfWUfpY30ScYGItkGtBBLkeODCczW1cseVAAPiVLoqJkn52JLJv58JkryqyHI6H3mATltZ6x2cTNzB23TZvrlxNmIuNufI63xtZcTvOMVIpmHbKhM2lvS_v_33PhdyQq/s1600/PC310667.JPG" height="285" width="320" /></a></div>
What do you see when you look at these photos? Do you see farm land? I would assume you do, but are you aware that only a few years ago this farm land was forest? I was able to see some older aerial photos of the area which showed a lot more trees and a lot less open farm land. <br />
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If the planet was not overpopulated the forests would be preserved, thriving, and being the lungs of the planet and the home of wildlife. Instead we rape the forests for wood or chop them up and burn them to make room for agriculture to grow food for people or food for livestock.<br />
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The trees in the distance of both of these photos are not forests, rather they are rows of trees about 30 feet wide, not much more; a poor replacement for all the trees that used to cover the land. <br />
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Now I know there are some people who do not see this as an indication of human overpopulation but I ask "<i>When does it stop?</i>" At what point do we say "<i>Ya, enough trees have been chopped, it cannot all be farm land, we need forests?</i>" To me the fact that we are not sustainable and are still cutting trees to make more farm land is proof that we are overpopulating the planet.<br />
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I only had one child, that was plenty for me. I live rurally and am allowing trees to reclaim part of the area in front of my house which was once known as a "lawn". We need to stop the destruction of our environment and the only way to do that is to slow our population growth. Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01944781712274179977noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1602077805894607195.post-25743732212716478002014-07-28T08:14:00.000-07:002014-07-28T08:14:18.353-07:00I am Tired of the Ignorant who Deny that Overpopulation is a ProblemI read a news article on concerns of the growing human population and
the problems of the human impact on the planet, mostly as related to
the fact that we are at risk of overpopulating ourselves to extinction.<br />
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One person commented "<i>Humans are too small of a species to cause any
real impact to the plane</i>t", or something to that effect. I wonder how
anyone can be so ignorant.<br />
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Anyone my age (I am nearly 50) has seen the world's population <a href="http://socyberty.com/issues/watching-the-population-more-than-double/" target="_blank">more than double</a> and should be aware of the problems that have developed as a
result (including urban sprawl).<br />
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Anyone who thinks humans do not impact things has never heard of the
dodo bird, passenger pigeon, quagga, Tasmanian tiger, and so forth.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrzh_t243cXaSnGuJPWJubcEOFRofdPci44b8KAkEEmJzVcAjRDwakVW5kIJv5F2_Klj1IjU1GP_ufL9eHUB0Q0rMPFfwJpiMlyVsXhp2IHhlvobMzNBGRGu3uzDkBUBjh6CiKdq5io3vt/s1600/cats+162.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrzh_t243cXaSnGuJPWJubcEOFRofdPci44b8KAkEEmJzVcAjRDwakVW5kIJv5F2_Klj1IjU1GP_ufL9eHUB0Q0rMPFfwJpiMlyVsXhp2IHhlvobMzNBGRGu3uzDkBUBjh6CiKdq5io3vt/s1600/cats+162.jpg" height="262" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">We know that cats are overpopulated.. humans are too.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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Anyone who thinks humans cannot cause change has never been in a
plane flying over a clear cut area, never seen an open pit mine, and has
probably not heard of what we did to the <a href="http://fullofknowledge.com/2013/10/aral-sea-huge-man-made-disaster/" target="_blank">Aral Sea</a>.<br />
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It just boggles my mind how anyone can think humans are not damaging the earth. These people are either ignorant or in denial, I assume they put their heads in the sand so they can justify living their life of excess, greed, and waste.<br />
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I think people just find it easier to deny these things than to admit
that humans are not living in harmony with nature, we are not being
sustainable. People do not want to change their ways so they simply deny
that we are hurting the planet.<br />
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This article was originally published by me on <a href="http://www.bubblews.com/news/4955876-how-can-anyone-deny-the-human-impact-on-the-earth" target="_blank">Bubblews</a>.<br />
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01944781712274179977noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1602077805894607195.post-41826933616657286232014-05-25T07:44:00.000-07:002014-05-25T07:44:13.317-07:00Preachers Need to Wage War on GluttonyToday is Sunday, preachers are inevitably preaching about one thing or another, usually about unimportant stuff such as the ills of what might be going on in some people's bedrooms, but have you noticed they rarely preach against the sin of gluttony? They are cowards who do not want to piss off some members of their congregation.<br /><br /><b>I do not care if I piss people off, I want to save the world</b>; gluttony is a sin against nature. People who are gluttons are consuming more food than they need, more than their share, and taking from the planet more than they should. <br /><br />Gluttony usually refers to the over consumption of food and drink. It has also been defined as eating delicacies rather than plain and simple foods. Pope Gregory I even said that the addition of sauces or spices to improve the taste of food amounted to gluttony.<br />
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Back then I bet nobody thought how far gluttony would go, I bet they had no idea the gluttonous foods we would have to day, nor the idea of an "all you can eat" restaurant where people do literally eat all they can. I bet nobody imagined a time when we would have food eating contests! <br /><br />One of the most common forms of gluttony is people eating portion sizes that are larger than their needs. The appropriate portion size of meat is 4 oz, about the size of a deck of cards, but very few people stick to that. <a href="http://thisshrinkingplanet.blogspot.com/2012/10/too-many-people-demanding-meat-are-to.html" target="_blank">Meat</a> is very bad for the environment for many reasons, one of which is the deforestation that occurs to clear land for cattle and to grow more crops specifically to feed cattle. The manure waste is also bad for the environment too, as well as the methane released in farts and burps.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4x4q-iiSvo775uIqitsm3UuscXnOske2IJhuQKut7BpG_fD-ii_4SiKsjRbbz1yoFMuXu4H2f4-EKnEJDB6fORn-qykCP_pEJzABRCIw4Yclbj87FhBpyme0gzXU3ioHxkrOz84gm7cVa/s1600/cows+road+2.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4x4q-iiSvo775uIqitsm3UuscXnOske2IJhuQKut7BpG_fD-ii_4SiKsjRbbz1yoFMuXu4H2f4-EKnEJDB6fORn-qykCP_pEJzABRCIw4Yclbj87FhBpyme0gzXU3ioHxkrOz84gm7cVa/s1600/cows+road+2.JPG" height="255" width="320" /></a></div>
Coffee is also consumed in gluttonous amounts, so much so that some people are now addicted to caffeine. Coffee is bad for the environment for many reasons, mostly the deforestation of the rain forest to grow coffee, but also because of the waste generated by restaurants who serve coffee, particularly take out coffee.<br /><br />Things such as candy, pop, and potato chips, are non essentials to life, and are often consumed in gluttonous amounts, contributing not only to obesity, but to environmental problems in general, mostly related to the processing of these items and the garbage created.<br />
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We are not "overfishing" we are "over eating fish" and we need to stop before we eliminate so many fish that their species cannot recover.<br />
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<br />
<br />If a waitress in a bar has the right to say to a drunk person "<i>You have had enough</i>" why cant a fast food worker say "<i>Sorry, you do not need the super sized portion</i>" or the restaurant worker say "<i>Nope, you do not need dessert</i>"?<br /><br />Is the gluttonous person only hurting themselves? No, their over consumption of food is hurting the planet, it hurts us all. It hurts the future for our children, and theirs. <br /><br />Glutton is a hard sin to overcome, and I wish more preachers had the balls to preach about it and people were more concerned about this and stopped freaking out so much about what others do in the privacy of their bedrooms.<br /><br /><br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01944781712274179977noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1602077805894607195.post-1257956078003058932014-05-16T08:41:00.003-07:002014-05-16T08:41:56.939-07:00Greed Has No Place in an Overpopulated WorldI wrote a post earlier about why some <a href="http://www.bubblews.com/news/3387006-why-don039t-preachers-preach-against-greed-and-wealth" target="_blank">preachers do not preach against greed and wealth</a> even though these things are against most religions. In this article I am going to explain some of the reasons why greed is bad particularly as the world becomes more and more populated.<br />
<br />I will first note that most people who are greedy never see themselves that way, they say they earned it, or are entitled to it, they never realize the full picture. They live in big houses, throw lavish parties, and often live a life of excess, simply because they think they have earned it.<br /><br /><b>In a perfect world everyone would live and be happy with less and by doing so we would preserve our environment and live more sustainable lives</b>.<br /><br />One of the reasons that greed is so bad is because when people are greedy <b>they consume more resources</b>. Not all resources are renewable and as they are used up it creates problems for the future. The earth has a carrying capacity which is based on its resources, currently some people are using far more than there share of resources, while others make do with less. Those that take more are the ones who are <a href="http://thisshrinkingplanet.blogspot.com/2011/11/human-overpopulation-what-do-we-owe.html" target="_blank">destroying the planet</a> the most.<br /><br />Greedy people do not only take more resources from the earth but <b>they also keep others in poverty</b>. One person cannot have more unless others have less. When one person demands a higher wage they cause a ripple effect, increasing prices or creating hardship for others. Let us say that person is a CEO of a big company, typically they demand a big wage and one of the ways to make sure they get more money is to pay others less, or to reduce the amount of hours others work, and then to make them work harder. The CEO feels they are more valuable. Sure you might say "<i>those lower paid workers can always quit</i>" but then somebody else will just be hired in their place. The whole point being the lower paid workers are the heroes, the greedy higher paid bosses are the greedy villains. <br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgm4NWPfZyoMGThJK2tiCeZvfAxglUdYIBdKOxahMbVRccc5Uj_rds9fdRF6VHboS8JZn-U1GTiD6axVKP3ZpDIlxVipoVvYakoVoFgJkF_G-ItCAeVNDDNN-qxNYDwRNnwlIVHC5J-f4nG/s1600/aug+2+2008_0024.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgm4NWPfZyoMGThJK2tiCeZvfAxglUdYIBdKOxahMbVRccc5Uj_rds9fdRF6VHboS8JZn-U1GTiD6axVKP3ZpDIlxVipoVvYakoVoFgJkF_G-ItCAeVNDDNN-qxNYDwRNnwlIVHC5J-f4nG/s1600/aug+2+2008_0024.JPG" height="280" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">To most these are modest homes, but to some they would look like mansions.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Imagine a pie, if one person takes a big piece, it leaves less for others, and eventually the pie is gone. Greed is not fair, it is ignorance and selfishness. People think they are "entitled" to more pie because they earned it, and they qualify themselves by saying "<i>Life is not fair</i>" but really it is them being not fair, and just trying to find excuses for their greed. <br /><br />So many people will deny that they are greedy, they will live in million dollar homes and insist that they worked hard for their money and as such they are not greedy, but what they will always fail to realize is that <b>they have taken more than there share of the earth's resources</b>. Greed is not always about money. <br />
<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01944781712274179977noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1602077805894607195.post-6228671381236641352014-04-24T20:29:00.000-07:002014-04-24T20:32:43.654-07:00Is There a Conspiracy to Depopulate the Earth?As humans, we control the population of many species on the planet, except
our own. However there are people that suggest there are conspiracy
theories in regards to depopulating the planet to a certain extent, in
other words, killing off some people.<br />
<br />
If you grew up in the 1970's you may remember a show called "<b><i>Logan's
Run</i></b>" in this show human population was being controlled with a lottery type of system that involved killing off
people who reached a certain age. Other shows and movies have suggested a
similar fate in the future if we do not control the growth of our
population now. What is fascinating is that when Logan's Run first came
out human population was roughly 4 billion, and is now over 7 billion,
and growing. We have done very little to prevent a future of problems.<br />
<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJhRVcjB5kvgouNWyQdHq5__hJvKjPhDW2o9zNpHuOnKo8MTPc5sZrdrriOdr1HCSqt57RwlTwvp6e4miRNDnJKMsYXQ8cqg96n9Tmm61edCgerFV3Z8heukflwQiVVkl7Bj1aZHQL24E_/s1600/annasept2007_1_0019.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJhRVcjB5kvgouNWyQdHq5__hJvKjPhDW2o9zNpHuOnKo8MTPc5sZrdrriOdr1HCSqt57RwlTwvp6e4miRNDnJKMsYXQ8cqg96n9Tmm61edCgerFV3Z8heukflwQiVVkl7Bj1aZHQL24E_/s1600/annasept2007_1_0019.JPG" height="222" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Stop breeding like rabbits! ©</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
Some depopulation ideas are, as mentioned, simply killing off people who
are older, other ideas are more random, such as introducing a virus to
kill off some people, and it has been suggested that the HIV/AIDS virus
was designed just for that purpose.<br />
<br />
Of course, <b>I am not suggesting we do kill off masses of people</b>, I am only
pointing out that there are some people who are suggesting this, or are
suggesting that governments of the world are considering doing this
(many conspiracy theories about <b>New World Order</b> include reducing the
population to 5 billion). Even the United Nations has said that human
over population is a real concern. Many population experts suggest 5
billion is sustainable (we know 7 billion is not because we are
consuming renewable resources faster than they can be renewed, this is
only balanced by the fact that people in undeveloped nations are living
well below what those in developed nations are consuming). The infamous
<a href="http://thisshrinkingplanet.blogspot.com/2011/11/georgia-guidestones-rule-of-500000.html" target="_blank"><b>Georgia Guide Stones</b></a> and some others, suggest that 500,000,000 is
sustainable, and not any more.<br />
<br />
I personally have been concerned with human over population, probably
since watching Logan's Run, and only had one child (when I was 30),
partially because I do not want to reach a point where these scenarios
become real. I do not want to be killed later in life just to make room
for more people. <br />
<br />
Anyone who thinks these conspiracy theories might be real should make sure they are not part of a contributing force; either not have kids, have kids later in life, and/or limit
themselves to one child only. Yes, one child is growth, until you (or
your partner) dies, you have added one person to the planet, there are
now 3 rather than 2. <br />
<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01944781712274179977noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1602077805894607195.post-86395582462333795202013-11-22T08:46:00.000-08:002014-04-24T20:36:56.253-07:00Food is NOT the Issue with OverpopulationIt always pisses me off when some ignorant person mentions food whenever human overpopulation is mentioned.<br />
<br />
You know the ones, as soon as you say that the world is overpopulated they jump in and say "<i>There is not a shortage of food, we produce enough food but it is not getting to the people who need it</i>."<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNiQZLc0afsX5ECd4YhUUWVgaVDNQ9IEVlbp1-caLKO6ByrUhyphenhyphendeW5cVqcYvtSLMPPA4K_kLY6-8_y7j_0K6f3VzyJoNdyep_dVbN3MNvOL67yqlOUnVNtycDZQ24VeFjv4CN6bPp0glFX/s1600/P3250088.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNiQZLc0afsX5ECd4YhUUWVgaVDNQ9IEVlbp1-caLKO6ByrUhyphenhyphendeW5cVqcYvtSLMPPA4K_kLY6-8_y7j_0K6f3VzyJoNdyep_dVbN3MNvOL67yqlOUnVNtycDZQ24VeFjv4CN6bPp0glFX/s1600/P3250088.JPG" height="293" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<i><b>Wait, who said anything about food?</b></i> There are hundreds of concerns related to human overpopulation concerns and I would not even say food is in the top ten.<br />
<br />
In experiments done in the 1950's and 1960's <b>John B. Calhoun</b> proved that food was not an issue. He did experiments on rats and mice, providing them with an ideal environment, one in which food was never denied. The populations grew and then collapsed.<br />
<br />
In his experiments, Calhoun observed that as populations grew at first the subjects became more violent, had increased sexual behavior (including more sexual aggression), and some became anti-social. He noticed mother animals became less nurturing and even started to show aggression to their own young, sometimes killing them. Eventually the mother animals stopped mothering their young altogether, and the males stopped showing interest in the females, the animals behaved more like zombies than rats or mice.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSGAmA1ldxHu9IByA_Uv0eZ5pggDqmZJ3YDO3re_TBMP3nvfzACWrITZEJPk1OEVOVohofz2lVr0NfLgzvMpvyiLEGpwrI9qxO9ANFHejYW1N70vzxMrZPtuyms65IDMyqLjs4L2BadkdO/s1600/pic.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSGAmA1ldxHu9IByA_Uv0eZ5pggDqmZJ3YDO3re_TBMP3nvfzACWrITZEJPk1OEVOVohofz2lVr0NfLgzvMpvyiLEGpwrI9qxO9ANFHejYW1N70vzxMrZPtuyms65IDMyqLjs4L2BadkdO/s320/pic.jpg" height="214" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Universe 25 <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:CalhounJ.JPG" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">photo source</a></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
In fact in Calhoun's <a href="http://www.bubblews.com/news/1632781-universe-25-a-warning-for-humanity" target="_blank">Universe 25</a> experiment on mice, after 600 days the mice no longer produced any surviving litters and even as their population started to fall the surviving mice never produced any young, they effectively became "extinct". All this while their health was cared for, they were given ample water, and food, the only thing that was limited was space.<br />
<br />
Anyone who is interested can read up on "<a href="http://www.cabinetmagazine.org/issues/42/wiles.php" target="_blank">Behavioral Sink</a>" which is the term Calhoun gave to his observations.<br />
<br />
The point being that <b>food is not necessarily an issue with human overpopulation</b>, and that when we reach a point of being overpopulated there are other concerns - such as increases in anti-social behavior and violence (<i>wait, haven't we reached that point?</i>). So, to anyone who is ignorant enough to still think that just because we have enough food we can continue to pump out babies, I suggest you open your eyes!<br />
<br />
---<br />
<br />
The 2006 movie "<a href="http://www.bubblews.com/news/1636177-movie-review-children-of-men" target="_blank"><b>Children of Men</b></a>" explores a future in which humans have also reached a point where they are no longer able to produce young. This movie was based on the book "<b>The Children of Men</b>" by P.D. James who most certainly must have been familiar with Calhoun's studies.<br />
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01944781712274179977noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1602077805894607195.post-37019961980982678352013-03-04T16:42:00.001-08:002015-05-14T17:54:38.309-07:00The Root of Many Activist Issues is Human Overpopulation<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I am a member of a great activist type site, </span><a href="http://www.care2.com/" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>Care2</b></span></a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">On Care2 people can find activist </span><a href="http://www.thepetitionsite.com/browse-petitions/" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">petitions to sign</span></a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">,
they can vote up causes they believe in and can even make their own
petitions. One thing I have noticed though is that many of the
petitions have a similar root problem.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"></span><br />
<div style="float: left; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-right: 10px; width: 160px;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"></span><br />
<ul><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">
</span>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">One of the petitions calls to stop clearing part of the rain forest to make way for a place to produce and process palm oil </span></li>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">
</span>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">One petition calls for stopping the round up and potential slaughter of </span><a href="http://horses.knoji.com/wild-horses-in-canada-and-the-united-states/" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">wild horses</span></a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> in the United States.</span></li>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">
</span>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">There are petitions against </span><a href="http://wildlife-nature.knoji.com/facts-about-seal-clubbing-and-the-seal-hunt/" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">killing seals</span></a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">, dolphins, and wolves.</span></li>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">
</span>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">There is a “<i>Save the Rain Forest Frogs</i>” petition!</span></li>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">
</span>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">You can find petitions against cruelty to pigs, dairy cows, and battery hens.</span></li>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">
</span>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Another petition demands a halt to an oil pipeline, another asks to prevent a gold mine in a nature sensitive area.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">There are petitions to end urban sprawl.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">There are petitions to end GMO crops and various "Cheats" farmers use to produce food. </span></li>
</ul>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjck2Qr-VmayyeDubquncUlGj2e2uQVQN05mxf_gFWu1u4Y60qS0V8n859ZYv5A82SZm02stE3TC9fWof3NpqYk_dVQXKVQ2U-YzAIbUI7nPoo7rQCBhUcI5v2NyIwEE_TiIJ65cnKrM0-x/s1600/P6290003.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjck2Qr-VmayyeDubquncUlGj2e2uQVQN05mxf_gFWu1u4Y60qS0V8n859ZYv5A82SZm02stE3TC9fWof3NpqYk_dVQXKVQ2U-YzAIbUI7nPoo7rQCBhUcI5v2NyIwEE_TiIJ65cnKrM0-x/s320/P6290003.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgn0SAqFf0jJx2yfhIbhB9UQcCkKyLpKN46SSNfc6p462vHH32qEOXThx0g-yV3U3EYVvA2J35Sp8vwInzbsSIXoNC_GPyEFgtKebFJc2o465KZ2cJ9X7zl0hqJb6vYrHnRxch3fSxy8bRe/s1600/Crop+MaraLakeDovesRevelstoke_040.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><br /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Of course I do sign petitions that I support, and you can pretty much find petitions for anything. </span><br />
<br />
<div data-iceapw="48">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">You name it there is probably a petition for it, but
if you look at all of these petitions they are just addressing a small
part of a greater problem. It would be better to address the driving
force behind the problems that these petitions try to solve.</span></div>
<div data-iceapw="48">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"></span><br /></div>
<div data-iceapw="48">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">In some cases there is a place to make a comment, and I try to make a comment reminding others that if you want change, it is not the problem itself you have to consider but why the problem has developed in the first place. </span></div>
<div data-iceapw="48">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"></span><br /></div>
<div data-iceapc="2" data-iceapw="11">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i data-iceapc="1" data-iceapw="8"><b data-iceapw="8">Why do we need more palm oil?</b></i> Growing human populations.</span></div>
<div data-iceapc="2" data-iceapw="11">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"></span><br /></div>
<div data-iceapc="2" data-iceapw="19">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i data-iceapc="1" data-iceapw="7"><b data-iceapw="7">Why are wild horses being rounded up?</b></i> To make room to graze cattle to feed the growing human population.</span></div>
<div data-iceapc="2" data-iceapw="19">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"></span><br /></div>
<div data-iceapc="2" data-iceapw="24">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b data-iceapc="1" data-iceapw="7"><i data-iceapw="7">Why are rain forest frogs at risk?</i></b> Because more people means more trees are needed, and more land must be cleared to grow crops.</span></div>
<div data-iceapc="2" data-iceapw="24">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"></span><br /></div>
<div data-iceapc="2" data-iceapw="22">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b data-iceapc="1" data-iceapw="7"><i data-iceapw="7">Why are seals and dolphins being killed?</i></b> Because they eat “our” fish, we need fish to feed the ever expanding human population.</span></div>
<div data-iceapc="2" data-iceapw="22">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"></span><br /></div>
<div data-iceapc="2" data-iceapw="21">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b data-iceapc="1" data-iceapw="5"><i data-iceapw="5">Why are wolves being killed?</i></b> Because they threaten livestock, the same livestock we want to kill to feed our own population.</span></div>
<div data-iceapc="2" data-iceapw="21">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"></span><br /></div>
<div data-iceapc="2" data-iceapw="39">
<b data-iceapc="1" data-iceapw="4"><i data-iceapw="4"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Why is there </span><a href="http://farm-animals.knoji.com/most-cruel-things-people-do-to-livestock/" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">cruelty to livestock</span></a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">?</span></i></b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> Because people want to eat, more people means shortcuts are taken to <span class="IL_AD" id="IL_AD1">warehouse</span>
more livestock animals on less land, and transportation is pushed to
get the animals to where they need to go while reducing costs.</span></div>
<div data-iceapc="2" data-iceapw="39">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"></span><br /></div>
<div data-iceapc="2" data-iceapw="18">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b data-iceapc="1" data-iceapw="8"><i data-iceapw="8">Why do we need an oil pipeline?</i></b> A growing, and greedy, consumer driven population demands more oil.</span></div>
<div data-iceapc="2" data-iceapw="18">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"></span><br /></div>
<div data-iceapc="2" data-iceapw="22">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b data-iceapc="1" data-iceapw="6"><i data-iceapw="6">Why do we need another goldmine?</i></b> Again because more people are demanding more gold, and nations need income from gold to grow.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /><b>Why are cities expanding?</b> Urban sprawl is the result of continued growth.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>Why are farmers using GMOs and other "cheats" to produce food?</b> A rapidly growing population means farmers have less land on which to grow food, and are pressured into producing more food in less time.</span></div>
<div data-iceapc="2" data-iceapw="22">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"></span><br /></div>
<div data-iceapw="54">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">As you see nearly every problem faced by the world today is </span><a href="http://thisshrinkingplanet.blogspot.com/" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">human overpopulation</span></a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">
and <i><b>population growth</b></i>. Some people ignorantly think that if they have 2
kids they have maintained a steady population; but 2+2 = 4! If
you have two kids you have doubled your immediate population, doubled
the needs of your family. Chances are that your kids may have kids again before you have even died...</span></div>
<div data-iceapw="54">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"></span><br /></div>
<div data-iceapw="30">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Two good ways to reduce the population growth are
for couples to put off having children until they are in their 30’s and
to restrict themselves to one child only.</span></div>
<div data-iceapw="30">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"></span><br /></div>
<div data-iceapw="34">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>Most governments do not like this</b>, they want more
people, more workers, more consumers, more soldiers, and more tax payers. Governments are
not looking out for the future of the planet, only for the future of
themselves.</span><br />
</div>
<div data-iceapw="37">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The human population has </span><a href="http://socyberty.com/issues/watching-the-population-more-than-double/" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">more than doubled in the past 45 years</span></a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">. Huge natural areas have vanished forever. We are using <span class="IL_AD" id="IL_AD3">renewable resources</span> up faster than they can be renewed. We are killing other species only for our own <span class="IL_AD" id="IL_AD7">continued</span> survival and continued rape of the planet.</span></div>
<div data-iceapw="37">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"></span><br /></div>
<div data-iceapw="27">
<a href="http://socyberty.com/activism/animal-cruelty-why-do-we-blame-china/" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">China</span></a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">
is not everyone’s favorite country, and is often linked to animal
cruelty, but at least they were smart enough to see the problems with
unchecked population growth.</span><br />
<br />
<b>Other Reading:</b><br />
<a href="http://socyberty.com/activism/sign-a-petition-earn-butterfly-credits-change-the-world/" target="_blank">About Care2 and How You Can Earn Credits to Spend on Things You Care About!</a></div>
<div data-iceapw="27">
<a href="http://philosophy.knoji.com/thomas-malthus-the-man-who-warned-the-world-about-overpopulation/" target="_blank">Thomas Malthus, the Man Who Warned the World About Overpopulation. </a></div>
<div data-iceapw="27">
<br /></div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: currentColor; color: black; overflow: hidden; text-align: left; text-decoration: none;">
<br /></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01944781712274179977noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1602077805894607195.post-23036630680951800092012-11-23T19:29:00.001-08:002012-11-23T19:29:47.537-08:00Addressing Diet to Solve the World Overpopulation Crisis
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
No doubt about it, the human population
is in crisis, even if <a href="http://socyberty.com/issues/overpopulation-let-us-all-move-to-texas" target="_blank">most people</a> refuse to believe it. We are using
up our non-renewable resources and are using the renewable ones
faster than they can be renewed, we have a few solutions, one of
which is to delay the age at which some girls are getting pregnant.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<b>Meat</b></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
It has also been suggested that a high
meat diet in general contributes to early puberty, particularly in
girls. Indeed there are many nutritionists who suggest most people
in the western countries eat as much as 4 times more meat than they
need. <a href="http://phys.org/news195478498.html" target="_blank">Studies</a> have linked early puberty in girls to a diet that is
high in meat. Perhaps the meat based protein is a contributing
factor, but it could be something “in” the meat that should be
considered.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<b>Growth Hormones</b></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Growth hormones are being used in the
production of meat and in some countries in the production of milk.
The USA allows hormones to be used in the <a href="http://www.listmyfive.com/1c0bcce1/The-Top-Five-Reasons-Why-Dairy-Is-More-Cruel-Than-Beef" target="_blank">dairy industry</a>, while many
other countries, including Canada, do not allow this. Other
livestock, with the exception of those sold as “organic”, are
often pumped with growth hormones to get them to the market sooner
and for a higher price.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
The consumption of food products loaded
with growth hormones could be to blame for causing both girls and
boys to come into puberty sooner. The sooner people enter puberty
the greater the risk for early pregnancy, and the younger people are
when the have kids, the quicker the population booms.<br /><br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<b>Fat</b></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />Many people also consume more
fat than they need and this too has been suspected as having a strong
relationship with the early onset of puberty.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<b>Processed foods</b></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
As processed foods are often loaded
with chemicals, they too have been linked to leading to causing
earlier puberty in girls and maybe even in boys too.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
As a group we can lobby against
allowing growth hormones in meat and dairy. We can select better foods for our families. This is not just for health reasons, but as mentioned, if we can delay puberty we can hopefully delay some pregnancies and this should be a positive step in controlling the population growth.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
If you are a grocery store owner you
are perhaps one of the most powerful people in regards to preventing
human overpopulation. The food industry is not going to change for
the sake of humanity, each entity of the production line wants its
share of the pie, and none are going to admit they are part of a
problem (again there are many people who refuse to believe there is a
problem at all). Grocery store owners could insist on organic meat
and dairy as well as reducing the amounts of processed foods they
sell in hopes it will make a difference.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01944781712274179977noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1602077805894607195.post-30612948171859538552012-10-08T09:32:00.000-07:002012-10-08T09:32:43.126-07:00Too Many People Demanding Meat are to Blame for Tainted Beef
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
Once again beef
is being recalled from many shops due to concerns with E.coli, a
bacteria. In the most recent case (fall 2012) the tainted beef is
coming from the XL slaughter plant in Brooks, Alberta. This plant is
also known as Lakeside Packers.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
Some people are
blaming the cattle producers but ultimately contamination comes from
processing, not the producers (the people who raise cattle). And if
we go further into it, perhaps the consumers themselves have to share
some of the blame. More people = more demands = more short cuts taken.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
If you have
never seen a slaughterhouse I assure you it is horrific. On certain
days in Brooks the whole city has the smell of the slaughterhouse. <a href="http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/life-on-the-kill-floor-of-a-slaughterhouse-is-fraught-with-peril/article4593690/" target="_blank">XL Foods process</a> (kill) 4,000 animals per day. Each worker on the kill
floor has one job (such as gutting the animal) that they may have
only seconds to perform before sending it to the next worker).</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
The XL Foods
plant, Lakeside Packers, has been in the news many times, including
an issue of violating human rights. At that time Lakeside Packers
had a different owner and workers were not allowed bathroom breaks,
indeed many reported they were being forced to urinate in their pants
while on the production line.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
Back then fewer than 3,000 cattle
were slaughtered per day, but a new owner has increased production. </div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<br /></div>
The workers at XL Foods, Lakeside Packers are reluctant to complain about
safety concerns or other issues. Most are immigrants, sometimes
there is a language barrier, other times they do not know who to talk
to, or that there is anything wrong, but mostly it comes down to the
fact that they fear for the loss of there jobs – as being
immigrants finding work elsewhere can be challenging. <div style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<br />I use to
live near Brooks and remember hearing horror stories, with production
being increased I can only imagine how much worse things have become.
Corners are undoubtedly being cut, and for sure this must be to
blame for the current E.coli outbreak.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
But do we blame
the plant? Ultimately the XL Foods plant must accept responsibility
but so too does the consumer. The consumer creates the demand, they
are the reason for 4,000 cattle to be killed per day, and 3,000
steaks processed per minute at this plant. <i><b>Growing populations mean more demand</b></i>, no wonder some producers are pumping animals with growth hormones!</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
Most people in
North America eat 4 times as much meat as they should. A steak that
feeds one person here is enough to feed a family of four in Japan.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<br /></div>
<b><i>
</i></b><div style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<b><i>How to Protect
Yourself from Tainted Meat</i></b></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
Tainted meat can
come from any slaughterhouse, but for sure the larger ones where
things are rushed are bound to be more of a concern. With ground
beef you are safer to buy it from the butchers and grocers where the
beef is ground on site rather than arrives there preground.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
Eat less meat,
if more people would reduce the amount of meat they ate the
slaughterhouses could lower their quota, putting safety quality ahead
of quantity. Have two to three meatless days per week, or have
smaller portions of meat when you do have it. Currently most people
eat more meat than their body needs, this is also a waste of
money.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<br />Cook your meat well. Raw hamburger in particular is the
most dangerous source for E.coli.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
Ultimately we also need to consider the need to stop adding more people to the planet. More people means more demands for food, and forces producers to cut corners. </div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
We have standards for safe food handling we just have to make sure people are not burdened so much that they cannot meet those standards.</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01944781712274179977noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1602077805894607195.post-38646153914992674022012-09-21T10:29:00.002-07:002012-09-21T10:29:49.723-07:00The Ignorance of Humans Makes More Humans Seem Like a Good Idea<b>Over 7 billion people.</b> By most accounts that is too many. But yet when talking to people about over population a good number of people talk as though a decline in population is a bad thing. I guess their ignorance is bliss but for the rest of us it is horror.<br />
<br />
Nobody seems to understand that unless you drop dead the day you become a parent every birth is adding to the population. They always seem to go back to saying that some people die, but let us be honest, in modern times, and with modern medicine the percentage of people dying has dropped in developed nations. People are living longer than ever before, there are fewer infant deaths, and as such the population is sky rocketing.<br />
<br />
I asked a question on WebAnswers a while ago - you may want to click here to see all the answers <a href="http://www.webanswers.com/relationships/parenting-kids/for-maintained-population-how-many-kids-per-couple-729bb1">http://www.webanswers.com/relationships/parenting-kids/for-maintained-population-how-many-kids-per-couple-729bb1</a> - I was quite amazed to see how ignorant people were and how many of them remarked that a drop in population was a "bad thing". Feel free to <a href="http://www.webanswers.com/_payme/" target="_blank">click here to join WebAnswers</a> and post your own answer to the question if you want to do so.<br />
<br />
Here is the problem people are having, I ask how many kids can a couple have to maintain the population.<br />
<br />
Suppose they have two kids. That is doubling the population because two parents is now four people. Okay, suppose this is a very closed society and forget the rules of inbreeding and incest, let us imagine the two kids get together and have two kids. The parents are likely still alive, so two people is now six. Since people are living longer than ever before it is likely that the two kids will reproduce and have two more kids while the original couple is still alive, bringing the total people to eight. By then with any luck somebody will die, but the population was not maintained it will never go back to being just two! The population has risen and will remain high in a cycle as long as people do not have more than two, but the initial birth of two kids was growth and should not be denied as such.<br />
<br />
I had one kid, then had my tubes tied. Two parents plus one kid is growth and I am not too stupid to deny that. However my husband died early when my daughter was 5 so I guess the population did balance itself then. But let us not kid ourselves into saying that two kids is maintaining the population. <br />
<br />
<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01944781712274179977noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1602077805894607195.post-71163185019255627632012-03-31T16:02:00.000-07:002012-03-31T16:02:49.453-07:00Can Somebody Build Small Homes Please?Recently my husband and I went
to look at some show homes, they were all pretty massive. I am
claustrophobic, but I admit I found this homes horrifically huge, I
wondered how many trees fell to build these monstrosities of mostly
empty space.
<br />
<br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
These new homes have more than 1,000 sq
feet of space per occupant. They have rooms called “Great rooms”, which are not so much great as they are a waste of space. </div>
<br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
The world does not need more three, or four,
bedroom homes. We need one and two bed room homes. We need homes
that provide people with yards to grow their own food and restrict
the growth of the family. In short we do not need more people on the
planet, so why make it easy by building monster homes?</div>
<br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
We need homes that will cater to the
kind of family people should be having, that being a family of one,
or no, children. Yes, I would make a good evil dictator I am sure!</div>
<br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Before you freak out and insist I am
wrong, you may want to note:</div>
<br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Currently the world has a human population of <strong>more than 7
billion people</strong>, while you may be living comfortably in your cozy
home, others are not. But the world has limited resources, and as we
are currently relying on non-renewable resources, and using renewable
ones faster than they can be renewed, there will be a point where
everyone is in trouble.
</div>
<br />
We seem to think it is okay to control the growth of other species, <a href="http://wildlife-nature.knoji.com/facts-about-seal-clubbing-and-the-seal-hunt/" target="_blank">killing seals</a>, unwanted pets, and other animals, yet we ignore our population growth.<br />
<br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
You cannot eat your house, and you cannot
grow enough food to sustain your family when you have a postage stamp size yard. We need
smaller homes, bigger yards, and fewer kids. The population has more
that doubled in the last 40 years, sky rocketing above the 1 billion
it sustained for a relatively long period of time.</div>
<br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Improved health care, and the
industrial revolution, proved good in some ways, but bad in others; now our own population is potentially our biggest threat to survival
of the human race.</div>
<br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Will the city planners see this or will
they continue to encourage large populations? Well if you know
anything about the world you know that the government does not give a
darn about 100 years from now. It only cares about itself, getting re-elected, and retiring wealthy. The
government is happy to have more people, it means more taxes! </div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />The
architects want to design big lavish homes that draw attention, earn
them acclaim, not save the world. I would love to win the lottery,
take some land, build 2 bedroom homes; small, simple, practical,
homes, and give them away to similar minded people, people who care
about the future of the world and the survival of the human race.
</div>
<br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
There is no need for anyone to have 3, 4, or more
kids, even farmers no longer need big families, they have machinery.
What we need now is responsible family planning, smaller homes, and more trees.</div>
<br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01944781712274179977noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1602077805894607195.post-1202824953864209142012-03-09T08:43:00.000-08:002012-03-09T08:43:44.161-08:00Schools Should Give Condoms for Free to Prevent Teen Pregnancy<br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Teenage pregnancy is a problem that many parents, or religious groups, do not want
to take seriously. They live in a bubble, a bubble where they can
just tell teens to say “no” and the teen will be able to turn off
their hormones and resist their desire to have sex. This is made worse by those that preach that
masturbation is a sin.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Many of these people think that by giving teenagers condoms (or other birth control) it encourages them to have sex. What a load of...</div>
<br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
It is ignorant to think that
teenagers are not engaging in sexual activities. Even if “<em>your</em>”
teen is not having sex – others are, and why
shouldn't they have access to free condoms and birth control
information?</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />There are over 7
billion people, our own population is our biggest threat to our
continued existence, and if you deny that then you really are an
ignorant so-and-so. One of the ways people can help reduce
overpopulation is by putting off having children
until they are at least 25. Having kids as a teenager places more
people onto the earth at an earlier time.</div>
<br />
Overpoulation issues aside, there are other reasons why we should try to reduce teenage pregnancies. Most
teens (despite their best intentions) are not ready to become
parents. They are not financially secure, many still want to party
and have fun with their friends and are not ready to “settle down
and raise a family”. Teens rarely have the emotional skills to
deal with a screaming baby, and so forth. <br />
<br />
Why should you care?
Because your tax dollars are very likely paying for most babies born
to, and raised by, teenagers. If you do not care about world
overpopulation perhaps you should care about having to fund babies
born to teenage mothers.<br />
<br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Condoms should be available free to
teens in school. Putting your head under a rock and insisting that
teens should just not have sex is stupid, especially in this day and
age when most teens come home to empty houses because both parents
are at work. Some teens struggle after having their parents divorce; picture the teenage girl desperately looking for a male
figure in her life, and turning to the first boy that shows any
interest in her, even if it is purely sexual.
</div>
<br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Handing out condoms in school does not
encourage kids to have sex, they are already having sex, but it does
encourage safe sex. The fact that most parents are not involved in
their kid's lives encourages kids to have sex. I think it is time we
deal with the reality, not live in some fantasy world where we can
just expect teens to be abstinent.</div>
<br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01944781712274179977noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1602077805894607195.post-1570580648065381112012-02-24T10:35:00.000-08:002013-03-13T16:12:03.818-07:00Maybe the Rapture is a Good Thing<br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">For
the most part I do not believe in “<em><strong>The Rapture</strong></em>” (I often thought it was just one of those bribe / threat things used by some religions to control people), however I
started to think about it and maybe it would not be such a bad idea
after all. In an instant a small percentage of people would vanish,
and, if it is anything like in the movies, their clothing would be
left behind in a neat little pile. </span>
</span></div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"></span><br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; text-decoration: none;">Not
only would we benefit by losing these “<em>holier than thou</em>” folks
who look down on everyone else, but this is a great way to reduce the
population without having to do anything drastic.</span></div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"></span><br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; text-decoration: none;">By
all accounts the Rapture could whisk away between 30 million and 100 million
believers. While not enough by some standards, it is still a dent in
the population.</span></div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"></span><br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; text-decoration: none;">Another
benefit, if the Rapture is actually real (and not the delusion of a
teenager <a href="http://relijournal.com/christianity/the-evil-of-macdonald-and-darby/" target="_blank">Margaret MacDonald</a>), is that many of the people who would be
“taken” are those who are least concerned with the environment.
If you watched the 2006 documentary Jesus Camp, you saw how some
parents were home schooling their children, telling them that global
warming is real, is human caused, but not to worry about it because
Jesus will return and save them from the mess they have created upon
the earth. They are the head-in-the-sand kind of people that really
have chosen to live in denial so they can excuse their wasteful or
greedy lifestyles.</span></div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"></span><br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">A
lot of the people who believe in the Rapture are also those who think
that the more kids they have the more God will favor them, so they
are not really the kind of people the planet needs in terms of
sustainability. </span>
</span></div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"></span><br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; text-decoration: none;">So,
while I have never believed in the Rapture, I am starting to think
that maybe it would not be such a bad idea after all.</span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01944781712274179977noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1602077805894607195.post-55539072058660021392012-01-29T10:33:00.000-08:002012-01-29T10:44:03.224-08:00Please Don't Kill the Wolf that Killed Me<br />
Have you noticed that when a person in North America is
attacked by a wolf (or any wild animal), not only does it make the news, but people form
groups and go out with one purpose in mind: <strong><em>kill the wolf! </em></strong>In fact we are more likely to kill one wildlife animal for being a risk, than we are likely to kill another human being who has killed several other humans...<br />
<br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
It does not matter what the circumstances were, the intent is to kill the wolf.
You can almost hear people chanting “<strong><em>Kill the Wolf, Kill the Wolf</em></strong>”.
Heck, it could be a cougar or bear, for that matter. People just
seem to want revenge on the animal, or to prevent it from killing more humans I suppose.</div>
<br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Oh and sharks too – never mind that
getting attacked by a shark is pretty easy to avoid – stay out of
their water and you won't get eaten!</div>
<br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Let us do some animal math; there are over 7 billion people in the world. There are only
55,000 Grizzly bears, 50,000 cougars, and 100,000 wolves (most of
which are in Canada).</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
If a person decides to enter bear territory,
and maybe even comes between a mother bear and her cubs, and gets
hurt, we blame the bear, we kill the bear, we form mobs that go out
looking for the bear and are not satisfied until it is dead.</div>
<br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
We have already pushed wild species out
of the best parts of the wilderness, which we have claimed for
ourselves. We build developments around the best lakes, we plop
cities in the river valleys that wildlife have migrated through for
generations.
</div>
<br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Now, I am not saying I want to go out
and get eaten by a wolf, bear, or cougar, I am just saying that if that ends up being
my fate, please do not blame the animal. I do not want a murderous mob of people
going on a wolf killing rampage through the forest just because one
wolf took my life. It should not be front page news either, it is
not anymore news worthy than if I die of old age, and natural causes.
If we think about it, death by a wolf should be considered a
“<em>natural cause</em>”, what's more natural than nature?</div>
<br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
As populations of humans continue to
grow and expand in to what use to be wildlife territories, we can
expect to see more problems with these animals, but are they really
the problem, or is it us?</div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01944781712274179977noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1602077805894607195.post-66033300374414476112012-01-15T15:15:00.000-08:002012-01-15T15:15:38.066-08:00Overpopulation is a Life ChangerThis is just a rant. A rant about people and how they (we) live their (our) lives.<br />
<br />I remember hearing this summer about a drought in Texas, farm animals were starving to death because there were no crops. If we suppose this is an act of global warming and we can link it to human activity, I wonder how many people affected by the drought changed their way of living. <br />
<br />
Did any of them drive their car less? Did any of then consume less junk that they do not need anyhow just for the benefit of reducing factory emissions, or did they continue their consumer happy, greedy, lifestyle? <br />
<br />
Did anyone in Texas think "Whoa this is getting worse, gotta do something."? Probably not.<br />
<br />
A lot of people only live for the here and now, I want this, I want that, they do not think of long term implications such as destruction of the planet used to make the item, waste, or even debt.<br />
<br />
The same thing is true of family planning, or more correctly, lack of family planning. "I want a kid" is the thought, never mind if the person is ready (financially, emotionally) to be a parent, or if the planet even needs more kids. All that matters to a person is that they want a baby, then another, and another. The next thing you know they are complaining about how tired they are, how much work three kids are and how they have no money.<br />
<br />
How is this connected to the drought in Texas? I almost forgot. I guess what I am saying is that if we are having more weather problems, and if they are related to human activity, why would anyone who is so concerned continue to pump out children? If thousands of cattle are dying because we cannot feed them, what are we going to feed our people if we have drought after drought knocking off cattle, and more and more people wanting to be fed? <br />
<br />
It's a no brainer really, less people equals fewer problems, but most of us will be dead before the real crisis hits, it will be felt by our kids and grandkids - and the more of them we have made, the sooner the real problems will be realized...Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01944781712274179977noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1602077805894607195.post-54335838621334426242011-12-21T13:59:00.000-08:002011-12-21T13:59:55.306-08:00Will Water be More Valuable than Gold?Have you ever wondered what substance
on earth is the most valuable? Is it oil, is it uranium, is it gold
or diamond? The things we value today will not be what we value in the future, because in the future there is one substance that will very likely
be more valuable than oil, uranium, gold, or diamonds, and that substance is water!<br />
<br />
<br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Although we often think our planet will
never fail to provide us with enough drinking water, this may not be
true, at least not if we continue adding people and polluting our
water. Even today some people pay more for bottled water than they
do for gas for their car.</div>
<br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
It's not just drinking water we need,
we also use water in agriculture; to grow plants, and for our
livestock animals. As we add more people to what many would say is
an already overpopulated planet, we will continue to require more
fresh water.
</div>
<br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">
<em><strong>How Much Fresh Water is there?</strong></em></div>
<br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
About 98% of our water is in the
oceans, leave 2 % as fresh water, of which 1.6% is frozen in icecaps
and glaciers. 0.36% is ground water, leaving only 0.036% available
to us in our rivers, lakes, and streams. Other water is in cloud
form, or actually in the bodies of animals, and in plants.
</div>
<br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Many people look naively at the oceans
and think we have an unlimited amount of water. Even those that are
smart enough to realize our fresh water resources are at risk
sometimes are ignorant to the risks that our oceans face, and the
problems of relying on ocean water to solve the impending crisis of
not having enough fresh drinking water. In other words desalinization
plants may not be the answer if we continue to add to the population
at the rate we currently are.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">
<em><strong>The Water Crisis will be Fueled by Human Overpopulation</strong></em> </div>
<br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Today we live in a paradox, we are
finding ways of bringing fresh, safe, drinking water to more people,
but industrialization is resulting in more and more chemicals finding
their way into streams, rivers, and eventually the ocean. More
people means more demand for fresh water, and it means more people
polluting the water we have.</div>
<br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
People in some nations (such as El
Salvador) are spending over 10% of their total income on safe
drinking water. In a world with a growing population and increased
pollution, water is becoming a premium resource. For now it might
seem that we are improving the supply of fresh water to people who
have not had it in the past, but at the same rate we keep adding
people to the planet, and making demands of a valuable resource.</div>
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<em><strong>Terra Nova got it Wrong</strong></em></div>
<br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
If you have been watching FOX network
(American TV) show Terra Nova, you will have seen an overpopulated,
over polluted planet in the year 2149. The show is fun to watch but
has some flaws, one flaw being that while the people in 2149 live in
domed cities and require masks to breath the air they sent people
back into the past (through a portal in time to the time of the
dinosaurs) to rape the planet for minerals. It seems far more likely
to me that the resources they would most want would be fresh drinking
water and perhaps even a few dinosaurs to feed all the people.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">
<em><strong>A Wake Up Call</strong></em></div>
<br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
I just know somebody who is reading
this is probably thinking: “What about desalinization?”, Sure we
can remove salt from the sea, but desalinization plants cost money
how far inland will we pump the water, how much will it cost the
consumer, will coastal countries pump water inland to countries that
do not have coastlines?</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh36gQEmN7skAq9yMaKQy2YcJVBYQGziGD2qNODeH6HiXQgjKd4Dm8aqPhYDJDxD3Ky51mYpE8WHb9haUa1CM8AT1JB2QApWtMwVjTMU3b6rPGi2jIi_HJEMIvClxyDZxVRVKWNvAwX9x2z/s1600/picture.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="196" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh36gQEmN7skAq9yMaKQy2YcJVBYQGziGD2qNODeH6HiXQgjKd4Dm8aqPhYDJDxD3Ky51mYpE8WHb9haUa1CM8AT1JB2QApWtMwVjTMU3b6rPGi2jIi_HJEMIvClxyDZxVRVKWNvAwX9x2z/s320/picture.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Whitechuck_glacier_1973.jpg" target="_blank">photo source</a> - Whitechuck glacier, Washington - 1973</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
If you think we can rely on streams,
and rivers to continue to supply us with our water, think again.
Thanks to global warming glaciers are melting at alarming rates, this
includes glaciers in mountain ranges. Snow fall is less and less,
and drought is more and more common. Eventually the streams and
rivers will run dry for most of the year. Some of our world's
glaciers have already vanished, others have shown great rates of
retreating since 1980.<br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
The images shows an area of the Whitechuck Glacier, that has retreated more than 1.2 miles (1.9 kilometers) between the times these two photos were taken.</div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUs1niuMtM9DB0WoPwQEZ7gTG7mCFKs79EkYXZYVX37xQqtaiZMIBgVPRKu8DJ2oH00_jhT-ik9gT0pln9FK9coeJ9kg4e4UZlE_ZkXov5r0sOXQRZ3xwtdBENiBKb31iXFPtDhLS1ABtY/s1600/picture.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="168" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUs1niuMtM9DB0WoPwQEZ7gTG7mCFKs79EkYXZYVX37xQqtaiZMIBgVPRKu8DJ2oH00_jhT-ik9gT0pln9FK9coeJ9kg4e4UZlE_ZkXov5r0sOXQRZ3xwtdBENiBKb31iXFPtDhLS1ABtY/s320/picture.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Whitechuck_glacier_2006.jpg" target="_blank">photo source</a> - Whitechuck Glacier - 2006</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Have you ever heard of the <a href="http://socyberty.com/activism/what-caused-the-aral-sea-to-shrink/" target="_blank">Aral Sea</a>?
If you haven't it is probably because the sea barely exists anymore
compared it to what it was years ago. Although it is in a
state of recovery now (due to pressure to save the Aral Sea) it was
almost gone, due to water being diverted from it for agricultural
purposes. It is still mostly too salty for life (having become salty
due to the lack of fresh water reaching it for years). It is
alarming that so few people have even heard of it since, at one time, the
Aral Sea was one of the four largest lakes in the world.</div>
<br />
<br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
As such I suggest that the most
valuable substance on earth is not oil, uranium, gold, or silver, but
is one thing we take for granted: <em>Fresh water</em>.</div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01944781712274179977noreply@blogger.com2